Nursing School Programs

Parade Magazine recently discussed the nursing shortage, citing the very same reason that I’ve frequently mentioned here on this site: not enough nursing teachers. Which means not enough nursing classes. Which means not enough students can graduate from nursing school to replace all of those registered nurses who are leaving the field.

Nationally, the article says, 42,866 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing school programs last year. That is very unfortunate; think how much better off patients everywhere would be if all of those qualified, eager nursing school applicants had been accepted. Eventually, of course, some of those applicants are going to get discouraged and give up and seek other fields.

Before they do, of course, I would suggest that they explore some alternative methods of getting past the nursing school waiting lists.

The nursing shortage in some ways benefits nurses, because it means that nurses are highly sought after by employers,  but it can be hugely stressful for them as well.

When hospitals can’t hire enough nurses, the nurses that they do have end up working a lot of overtime, which is physically exhausting. Who do you want to care for you - an exhausted stressed-out nurse or a well-rested nurse?

A study by the American Organization of Nurse Executives and Nurseweek Publishing shows that 93 percent of nurses surveyed feel that the lack of time that they are able to spend with patients is a major problem, and that this problem is caused by the nursing shortage.

Hopefully our legislature will start providing more funding to hire nursing teachers. If nursing teachers were better paid, more nurses would choose to be teachers, which would mean nursing schools could finally start serving enough students to address the nursing shortage.

Most people these days realize that there is a severe nursing shortage and that it’s only going to get worse, but not everyone realizes why this is so.

Here are five reasons why hospitals, doctor’s offices, schools, clinics, and other employers all across America, in small towns and big cities, are scrambling to find nurses:

1.) Nursing teachers aren’t paid well enough. This is one of the main causes of the nursing shortage. It’s hard to attract nurses into teaching positions because private employers such as hospitals and clinics pay much better. So colleges turn away many, many qualified nursing school candidates every year because they just don’t have enough nursing teachers.

2.) Nursing teachers are aging out and retiring. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, nursing school professors average age is 52 years. And when they retire, there will be even less nursing teachers, unless steps are taken to offer a considerably better salary.

3.) An aging baby boomer population creates a need for more nurses. As people age they obviously develop more health-care issues and need more healthcare assistance.

4.) Fairly high turnover in the nursing profession. Every year, a significant percentage of nurses leave the profession that they thought they’d love. The job is stressful, nurses are in constant fear of losing their licenses, and many states don’t have mandatory nurse-patient ratios which protect both the nurse and the patient.

5.) An aging nursing population. The present average age of registered nurses is 43.3 percent, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.